Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Captain Aaron Root House – Inside

After reading some of the comments left on my post about the Captain Aaron Root house, I decided to go back and get some photos of the inside. This past Saturday morning was nice and sunny, and the snow was melting, so I headed over there with my camera once again.

After a brief confrontation with the adult son of the owner of the house next door (who wanted to know what I was doing), I went about my business getting the shots I wanted.

First, I went in the front door (or where the front door would have been if there was one). I had seen this view from the highway for many years and it was fairly exciting to walk right in.

Unfortunately, once inside, I couldn't do much more than poke my camera at each room from the entrance foyer. (I didn't dare climb the stairs.) Here's the view to the left (below).

Years of neglect resulted in major structural damage, and I had no desire to go crashing through the floor in a slapstick manner – which is what might have happened if I had stepped onto the floor of the room to the right of the entrance foyer (below). You could see clear down to the cellar.

Sticking my camera in various windows revealed the sad remnants of a historic house.

Pointing the camera up allowed me to get an idea of what the second floor looked like, especially since the upper floor was gone.

Entering the house from the back was an impossibility, due to thick brush and years of debris which accumulated behind the house (below).

Here are a few random shots (below).

Reluctant to leave, I re-entered the house and tried to imagine what it was like living there. Here's the view looking out a front window onto Colorado Avenue.

All in all, it's a sad end to a historic house that played an important role in Underground Railroad history.

I sure wish some archaeological team was allowed to dig around the foundation of this house before its past is covered up with that new dollar store.

10 comments:

Anonymous
said...

While I was reading your earlier post, I was like look inside, look inside! So glad you followed up. I esp like the window view of Colorado Ave. There are probably some sort of artifacts around. Lets rappel to the basement!!rae4224

If the site is not going to be saved for historical purposes, I do hope the city requires some sort of historical marker placed on the property! It would be a shame to forget the important part Captain Aaron Root played in the Underground Railroad...

I did not know this house was still standing. I would be very interested in speaking with the owner to possibly save some wood materials from the structure. Believe it or not, even in this shape, I notice some items that I would see as worthy of being saved. This is at the corner of Colorado and Abbe correct?